As these twenty-eight days wind down, I’ve been wracking my brain on how else to grow this column and challenge my writing. As tired as I am of these “retrospective” entries, they have proven to help me explore my strengths and weaknesses more thoroughly (and publicly, for the five of you who will read this, thanks Mom). I’ve been thinking about the word “next”.

After Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple the first time, he started a competing technology company called NEXT. He went into direct competition with Apple. Jobs tried to become so successful outside of his own company that had scorned him, that they’d have no choice but to ask him to come back. I’m not foolish enough to think I’m anything like Steve Jobs. I can, however, relate to doing some of my best work with a chip on my shoulder. We all run on fire to some degree.

When I think about “next”, I think about going to the next song on a playlist. Whether it’s because I’m bored with the current song, or I just really want to the next one, I find myself pressing it constantly. I love carefully planned out Spotify playlists, but I can also put it on shuffle and revel in the randomness.

Sidenote: “Wet Dreamz" by J. Cole is a surprisingly great follow up to Steve Earle’s “Valentine’s Day”. Give it a shot below.

I don’t know if the future of this column will be planned out or put on shuffle. I sure do hope you five readers stick around though. Thanks again, Mom.